ANGC condition

[Troy Alderson]

The greens at ANGC looked and played great, from my living room.  But,...

From my experience as a golf course superintendent and watching the masters for many years, that had to be the worst I have ever seen the fairways in recent history.  They looked long and shaggy, you could see the differing cuts from each reel on the mower, and no roll for the drives.

Is the Masters committee trying something different?
Did they hire a rookie mechanic or something?

That was not the ANGC that I am used to seeing on TV.  Thoughts?

Bewildered,
Troy

[Joe Fairey]

Troy,

Not sure what you think you saw, but I can assure you ANGC was every bit as good this year as any of the past years...and I promise you I know what I'm talking about....the only gitch of which I'm aware(which I feel sure won't ever happen again...ask CBS) was the lack of a proper camera angle to catch Trevor's ball going in the water on 16....I hope you all understand the tremendous amount of preparation that goes into the Masters....it's unbelievable...cheers...

[Mark Bourgeois]

Troy,

Enjoying your new HDTV?

Mark

[Dan Herrmann]

It might have been the bright sun combined with low humidity causing sun glare, especially on #11.

[Troy Alderson]

Joe,

The golf course as a whole may have been in great shape, but there was definitely poor adjustments on the fairway mowers or the fairway mowers did not stay in adjustment.  During the final round, the fairways looked as if they were not mowed, ie long and shaggy.

Mark,

Sorry, no HDTV, just 20+ years working on a golf course.

Dan,

This was definately poor adjustments on the reels.


Troy

[Chris Tritabaugh]

As a Superintendent who watched the tournament on HDTV the fairways mowers were definitely out of adjustment.  Not sure why this would have been the case, as I am sure the ANGC mechanics are top notch.  But it wasn't sun, dry weather, rain or anything else the mowers were cutting poorly.  That being said, I doubt it was noticed by the players.

[noonan]

In the 97 re-run on TV tonight, there was way more brown in the past.

[Don_Mahaffey]

I definitely saw some marcelling, and some of the units looked to be a bit off…the curse of a golf course superintendent watching golf telecasts...we look at mower cuts and bunker raking patterns. The green's mowers sure looked dead nuts though, and that’s where the rubber hits the road. The fairways were just fine, and I’m sure if any of us were playing on them, we’d have loved them.

[Craig Sweet]

Yeah, I mowed our fairways the other day with an old John Deere...early season clean up...and those fairways at ANGC looked just like ours...the striping  sure looked weird.

[Craig Sweet]

Don regarding the marcelling....named for a hairdoo from the 20's....actually, I believe, the name of the hairstylist that "invented" the style (Marcel)...also the inspiration for the "Ruffles" potato chip...

 

[David Ober]

The greens at ANGC looked and played great, from my living room.  But,...

From my experience as a golf course superintendent and watching the masters for many years, that had to be the worst I have ever seen the fairways in recent history.  They looked long and shaggy, you could see the differing cuts from each reel on the mower, and no roll for the drives.

Is the Masters committee trying something different?
Did they hire a rookie mechanic or something?

That was not the ANGC that I am used to seeing on TV.  Thoughts?

Bewildered,
Troy

I agree completely. Definitely looked longer than in the past, and it didn't seem that they were getting the typical roll on some of the fairways.

I wonder if perhaps the mowers were raised a sixteenth or so this year?

[James Bennett]

Don regarding the marcelling....named for a hairdoo from the 20's....actually, I believe, the name of the hairstylist that "invented" the style (Marcel)...also the inspiration for the "Ruffles" potato chip...

 

Paging Terry Thornton! 

[Brett Morris]

The greens at ANGC looked and played great, from my living room.  But,...

From my experience as a golf course superintendent and watching the masters for many years, that had to be the worst I have ever seen the fairways in recent history.  They looked long and shaggy, you could see the differing cuts from each reel on the mower, and no roll for the drives.

Is the Masters committee trying something different?
Did they hire a rookie mechanic or something?

That was not the ANGC that I am used to seeing on TV.  Thoughts?

Bewildered,
Troy

+1

Although they wern't like 3 or 4 years ago when the units were washboarding on a few holes, particularly 17.

[Eric Morrison]

I noticed the cut on 11 as well...looked a little off, but if they come let me experience it first hand tomorrow, you wouldn't hear any complaints from me...nice to see it can happen to the best of them...probably didn't affect the playability at all...kinda like when greens look like the surface of the moon at dawn but somehow roll smooth for the first group.

[Matt OBrien]

dont forget that they were under a water restriction. i know this has nothing to do with the mower's but realize how green it was this year compared to years past even under the water restriction.

[Troy Alderson]

Good to see that others saw the same conditions I did.  Like Don said, the curse of being a superintendent and watching pro golf.  I am always critiquing the visual maintenance program of the golf course on TV, noticing striping or lack of, bunkers hand raked or by machine, how good the fairway and green edges are mowed, how wide the fairways are and how deep the rough is.

For moisture levels in the soil, the turf looked dry and green.  But because of the lack of roll I would speculate that the fairway mowers were not sharp and/or the height was raised.

The greens looked fanstatic in all aspects.  Bar none.

Troy